Tale of the tape: Griz running backs
by Trent Makela, MontanaGrizzlies.com |
University of Montana running backs Brady Green and Reggie Bradshaw have come from very different places to contribute their unique talents to Grizzly football. Bradshaw is a flashy speed-back from Canada who transferred to Missoula after two seasons at Division I-A Louisville.
Green is a senior from Salt Lake City who can do it all, but who spent the majority of the past three years becoming known as a special-teams ace. Hard work, injuries and fate have brought the pair together this season, though, as the two-headed monster that calls the Grizzly backfield home. Bradshaw and Green sat down with MontanaGrizzlies.com recently to tell the fans a little more about themselves, and to show how much they really do have in common.
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| Most memorable run: |
I had like a 43-yard run at Weber State during my sophomore year that was in front of a lot of family and friends. |
My first college touchdown. It was against Army on an outside play that I cut across field. I made a bunch of guys miss and slipped into the end zone. |
| Best piece of advice about rushing you ever received: |
Keep your legs going. No matter what, keep your legs going. |
It wasn’t really advice, but there was a Walter Payton quote where he said “keep going, keep going, fight for more yards”. I just keep trying to tell myself that before games. |
Favorite playing surface: |
I like that sprint turf in Washington-Grizzly Stadium. It’s soft and you get the best traction on it. |
Natural grass that’s cut short. I feel so fast on it, but it doesn’t give the harsh burns of Astro-Turf. If it’s kept nice it’s just as good. |
If your team is on the goal line, would you rather go over, through or around the last man in front of you: |
Probably through. It’s the classic way to do it. I can’t jump for anything so I gotta go through them. |
I’d rather go over. I’ve only done it a couple times in high school. I haven’t gotten a chance here yet. |
| Favorite football moment: |
Probably the first punt I blocked when I was a sophomore. It was in the first round of the playoffs and I’d never blocked a punt in my life. I think I’ve blocked two since. |
My first touchdown with the Griz. It was against South Dakota State on our first drive and I had to dive in from the one-yard line. |
| Favorite play: |
We run a little toss sweep. I like it because it lets you see everything in front of you before you decide where you’re going to go with the ball. |
I’d say a slip screen that gives me a lot of open space and blockers so I can make people miss and use my speed. |
Fastest recorded 40 time: |
I ran a 4.5 at a high school combine. I still say it was a 4.49. |
I was hand-timed at 4.37 at Louisville. I ran a 4.34 when I was in high school, but I’ve put on a lot of weight so I don’t count that anymore. |
What you tell people your 40 time is: |
I gotta say 4.5. |
I just say 4.4. |
Pro running back you try to emulate: |
Roger Craig when he played for the 49ers. He could run it and catch it, and do them both well. |
Nobody really. Maybe a Marshall Faulk-type slasher. |
Favorite pro team: |
49ers |
Dallas Cowboys |
Dream running opportunity: |
Lining up in the Pro Bowl behind five Pro Bowl linemen. |
Just a big run of 80-plus yards – a game-changing moment like that. |
What it took to get here: |
I would say faith in my ability and, obviously, a lot of hard work |
Hard work, discipline and believing I could do it. Also somebody seeing me and liking what they saw. |
| Rushing nightmare: |
Standing in the end zone at Washington-Grizzly Stadium and watching a blitz come through. |
I don’t talk about that - it might carry over. |
| Two questions I should ask the other back: |
Ask him where he’s originally from – he’s got a different story for anybody who asks. Also, ask him what his car’s top speed is – he loves to talk about that. |
Ask him if he always had a receding hairline or if that came with age, and ask him why he won’t take me out in Utah. |
| Replies: |
The sorry thing is I was born with (a receding hairline) - it’s a family thing. I don’t take him out because there’s no Canadians allowed in Utah. |
I’m from Vancouver, British Columbia, and my car goes too fast for Brady to handle. |
[Back to the Grizzly Times] |
A family affair
by Joel Carlson, UM Sports Information |
At first glance, it would appear that sophomore Kim Tritz competing for the University of Montana cross country team is a non-story. Local prep star chooses to run at local university where she finds success, graduates and lives happily ever after.
Even Tritz herself seemed nonplussed by the idea of this article two weeks ago, for which she had a one-word question.
“Why?”
Why? Because Kim Tritz is a student-athlete at Montana for two reasons, and that’s where the story lies:
She is a student because post-World War II pollution was rampant across south-central Indiana in the late 1940s. She is an athlete because a Griz gymnast from the early Reagan years had issues with a leotard.
No, it’s no surprise that Tritz is running for coach Tom Raunig’s Grizzlies. Born and raised in Missoula, she can walk daily by the campus health center that is named for her grandfather. And if she needs to commiserate with someone close about the demands of being a collegiate student-athlete, her mom, a former UM athlete herself, is right on the other side of town.
The story is there, just not right on the surface. You have to dig deep to find it.
Picture Kim Tritz as a tree. Then it’s the roots of that tree that tell the story of how she got here more so than the rings of the tree itself.
Bloomington, Indiana, in the 1930s and 40s was the stereotypical Midwestern town from that era. Paperboys rode their bikes through the quiet residential streets in the morning, kids could walk the safe sidewalks to the local schools without fear of anything more frightening than the occasional snowball attack in winter and neighbors could leave doors unlocked without worry.
That’s the setting in which Robert Curry was born, raised and influenced with the ideals that stick to this day: character, honesty and truth, traits that continue on through the family line to his granddaughter, Kim Tritz.
Curry was born into a family of modest means and one that had simple priorities, no matter that he was a good enough athlete that he eventually played semi-pro baseball and probably could have made the major leagues if athletics had been the be-all and end-all for the Curry family. Instead it started with academics, followed by everything else in a close race for a distant second.
Curry Buick was in the family (and continues with the Currys to this day – 2015 will mark a century of business), but Robert’s parents, both college graduates, pushed him in a different direction, and it wasn’t exactly a gentle nudge.
“I was told by my mom ‘You’re going to be a doctor,’ and that was pretty much that,” he recalls today from his home in Potomac, Mont.
He also went to IU, then to the IU Medical School in Indianapolis.
WARNING: To satisfy those Grizzly Times readers looking to us to provide them with a dash of romantic content, we offer the following how-I-met-your-mother story.
“In my senior year of medical school, I had to have a wisdom tooth removed,” Curry says. “The oral surgeon had an assistant who was working her way through nursing school, and since I was having a heck of a time finding a date for the square dance, I asked her.
“She turned me down.
“On my next visit I was really getting desperate, so she agreed to go for a Coke. That meeting and the dance just sort of ignited things.”
Fast-forward to graduation day – medical school for him, nursing school for her – and the wedding day, which actually took place on the same momentous day.
“As long as relatives were going to travel, we figured we might as well do both on the same day and save everyone the trouble,” he says. “The graduation ceremonies were in the morning, the wedding was in the evening.”
And if that story ended up with a happily-ever-after conclusion, the connection to Kim Tritz could never be made, unless Tritz was running in the cream and crimson of the Hoosiers instead of the maroon and silver of the Grizzlies.
Luckily some myopic industries stepped in and provided a fork in the road, or maybe more accurately a dead end for an outdoorsman.
“It was right after World War II, and the Bloomington area was having horrible pollution problems. I loved to hunt and fish, but the lakes and the rivers that I enjoyed were having water problems. The fish were just stacking up on the sand bars gasping for air.
“It really soiled me on my good state.”
The Montana of Norman Maclain beckoned. And that’s how the roots started spreading to Missoula.
After an internship in St. Paul, Dr. Curry joined the Western Montana Clinic in 1959 and a year later joined a private practice, making house calls with the black bag that could have come right out of a Norman Rockwell painting.
In addition to his private practice, Dr. Curry worked a couple of hours each week at the University of Montana health center, which at the time did not have a full-time doctor. A relationship that would be long, fruitful and full of blessings for all involved was born.
“(In 1965) I was in charge of the committee that was going to hire the health center’s first full-time director,” Curry says. “We interviewed several physicians, but we couldn’t get any interest. Then I thought to myself, ‘I love sports and kids; I might as well do this myself.’ ”
Through his retirement in 1990 Dr. Curry would be the director of UM’s health center, as well as serve as the team doctor for Montana’s athletic teams. The impact of those who came under his care can not be measured, and the number of students and student-athletes he helped would be an inexact estimate at best, but how much of yourself do you have to give before they name a building after you in a day and age when naming rights are typically reserved for financial providers?
With the Curry family settled in western Montana, another generation is needed before we get to Kim. And that would prove to be the most influential root supporting Kim’s tree: her mother Kit.
The Curry family moved from Missoula to Potomac in the early 70s and single-handedly increased the Potomac school system from 30 kids to 35. Kit Curry’s athletic background was born in this rural setting.
“You just played with the boys,” she says. “That’s the way it was.”
Kit (Curry) Tritz (pictured middle) |
An athlete developed, and Kit turned into a standout gymnast at Missoula’s Sentinel High School.
She would walk on to Terry Hamilton’s Grizzly gymnastic team, but after the 1979-80 season, her freshman year, she was given an ultimatum.
“Like a lot of people I struggled with the ‘freshman 15’ when I got to Montana,” she says. “After that first year, Coach Hamilton pulled us aside and gave us a weight to get under by the following season.”
Kit made it by three pounds and was given a scholarship. To make weight, she turned to running and has been running ever since, including through the pregnancy of four kids of her own, right up to the week of each one’s birth (except for Kim, who was a breach baby – I guess it’s true what they say: stubborn fetus, stubborn runner).
A specialist in the vault, Curry would become a four-year letterwinner and team captain, helping UM to a Mountain West Athletic Conference second-place finish as a senior.
(Note: Competing against schools like Eastern Washington, Seattle Pacific, Idaho, Montana State, Washington State and Boise State, gymnastics has since the way of the swim team, the wrestling team, the ski team and the baseball team at the University of Montana.)
A lot of our Grizzly Times features are about kids who grew up as exceptional athletes, excelling at every sport they tried, head and shoulders above their out-matched classmates. If you want one of those, check back next month, because you won’t find anything like that in the Kim Tritz story.
Not that Kim didn’t try throughout her youth.
How about Y soccer?
“I didn’t like getting kicked in the shins,” she remembers, “so I would just avoid that bunch that circles the ball in youth soccer. I avoided the melee and just ran up and down the field next to the action.”
How about Bitterroot Gymnastics?
“When it came time for serious competition, I just wasn’t into it. I didn’t want to perform. I just wanted to do cartwheels and flip-flops and play around.”
And basketball at Target Range Junior High?
“I was a decent shot, but I wasn’t aggressive enough for basketball. They tried to make me a point guard, but I was so scared because I was not a very good dribbler. So I was fine with just running up and down the court.”
Is there a trend developing here?
“When it came time for high school I wasn’t going to do anything,” she says. “No sports appealed to me. But my mom thought I had running talent, and she said I should try out for cross country.”
Once in a great while an athlete and a sport come together in a symphonic convergence that makes it seem they’ve been doing it forever, that it’s in their blood. The elements that are required for success in the sport meet the unique qualities of the athlete and music is made.
Kim Tritz, meet cross country running, where shins don’t get kicked and balls don’t need to be dribbled.
“Running turned out to be the perfect sport for Kim,” her mother says. “She is a perfectionist and very competitive, but is such a kind soul. With running, she could compete against herself and not hurt anyone’s feelings.”
Um, except all those runners she would end up beating at races.
Kim showed up for practice on the first day, having done her very first training run in preparation just the week before, and didn’t see the 20-minute run as a big deal.
“We went for that first run and I was up running with the boys, and they said, ‘What are you doing? You shouldn’t be up here with us!’ ” she remembers fondly.
In the first race of her freshman year, Tritz finished second and beat all the other Missoula girls competiting.
She thought, “Maybe I’m not too bad at this. Maybe I’ll stick with it.”
Stick with it she did. Tritz placed 12th at the Montana Class AA state cross country meet as a sophomore and peaked as a junior, when she placed fifth behind three other runners who are currently running at the Division I level: Zoe Nelson (Oregon), Elisabeth Driscoll (Montana State) and Carly Brown (Northwestern).
When it came time to select a college, Tritz battled with the usual questions.
“My sophomore and junior year (of high school), I envisioned leaving and getting out of Montana and going somewhere else, but I think nearly everybody goes through that.”
But Montana won out over the other schools that had expressed interest, and making the adjustment to collegiate athletics from the high school level was a big step – now the runners she had competed neck and neck with in high school would be her teammates and they would push her every day in training.
“My biggest adjustment was getting my body used to working so hard every day,” she says, “but I also had to get used to having competition in practice every day. In high school I just ran with the boys. When they beat me it wasn’t that discouraging, because they’re guys – they were supposed to be ahead of me.
“Now every single day, every single workout, one of the girls has a good day and you just have to try to stick with them because you can lose your spot on the team if you’re not pushing.”
While it may have been a daily challenge during training, Tritz sure didn’t show any signs of wear when it came to Montana’s races. She finished second overall to Allie Brosh, an All-Big Sky Conference runner the year before, in her first collegiate race, finishing the four-kilometer Montana Open at Lubrecht Forest in 15:06, just 21 seconds behind Brosh.
She would finish as the Grizzlies’ No. 2 runner three more times in 2005, which included a 19th-place finish at the 2005 Big Sky Conference Championships.
“Kim’s performance as a freshman was a little bit of a surprise,” Raunig says, “but she has tremendous maturity and had a good work ethic coming out of high school.
“She followed our summer training program and worked hard, so she definitely earned everything she got.”
How has she handled going from being the fastest runner on the team in high school to a No. 2 and 3 runner at the collegiate level?
“In high school I didn’t have any teammates pushing me,” she says. “Now just seeing Allie out there and what she’s doing, it gives me motivation to get ahead of whoever is leading me.”
And while she has a drive to beat the competition, as her mother accurately foresaw five years before, a time when Kim had yet to ever go for a training run, she is successful because of her inner desire, an intrinsic motivation.
“I just have a drive to be good and do my best,” she says. “I want to see how far I can go and push myself.”
The 2006 Montana cross country season is now almost half over; three meets down, with the NCAA Pre-Nationals meet in Terre Haute, Ind., on Oct. 14, the Big Sky meet in Sacramento, Calif., on Oct. 28, the NCAA Mountain Regional in Albuquerque, N.M., on Nov. 11, and the NCAA Championships in Terre Haute on Nov. 20 to go.
With the Pre-Nationals meet in Terre Haute in mid-October, Tritz will be an hour away from Bloomington, where some dead fish a half century ago got her to where she is today.
For some young adults, when the roots of their family are too strong, they need to break clean of the roots and go and replant themselves elsewhere to have the best chance of success. For Kim Tritz, the roots have not held her down, but have allowed her to flourish. She is the product of the grandfather by way of her mother.
“I just have such a great support network here,” Tritz says. “It’s awesome that all of my family can come and watch me race and support me.
“And it’s cool to be able to point at a building on campus and say, ‘See that building? It was named after my grandpa.’ ”
[Back to the Grizzly Times]
|
Driving with UM senior golfer Jill Walker
by Ian Marks, UM Sports Information |
Senior Montana golfer Jill Walker, who finished tied for fifth at the Big Sky championships in 2005, explains the keys to a perfect drive.
SET UP
Feet: line up with feet square to the ball located just inside your front foot.
Weight: keep your weight centered on both feet.
Hands: your hands should be slightly in front of the ball.
Hips: keep your hips square to the ball.
Shoulders: should remain open but square to the ball, with the front shoulder slightly higher than the back.
Bend: use an athletic stance with a slight flex in the knees. Bend at the waist/hips, not at the back.
Head: will remain behind the ball and stationary. Keep your head down.
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BACKSWING
Start movement with your shoulders. Do not bend your wrists and elbows.
Draw the club back until it is parallel with the ground. Your shoulders will bring a wider swing arc.
Make sure to keep your speed easily controlled. Most golfers need to slow the speed of their backswing down.
Your weight is almost all on the inside of your back foot.
Come to a complete stop at the top of your back swing before starting your downswing.
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DOWNSWING
Start the movement with your hips and the arms will follow.
Keep the angle of your wrists the same through out impact.
Do not allow your hands and hips to get ahead of you, keep them behind you.
Your knees should remain bent.
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FOLLOW THROUGH
Continue going straight to your target.
Mirror the line from your backswing in your follow through.
Hands release on impact causing them to flip over.
Continue your motion until your hands achieve the same height as they did during your backswing.
Allow your arms to bring your head around.
Shift your weight from your back foot to your front foot.
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DRILLS
Elbow hold: to prevent your back elbow from pulling to far from your side during your backswing and downswing, tuck a golf club cover under your elbow. Do not allow the cover to fall out until impact.
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TIPS TO CORRECT SWING
Slice: Make sure your hands are in front of the ball and you let the club release through impact.
Hook: Start the movement of the down swing with your shoulders, not the arms. Make sure you are not over releasing through the hands.
Top: Slow down the transition from the back swing to the top swing. Remember to drive through impact and keep your head down.
Chunk: A large hip bend is causing you to dive at the ball. Do not lose your wrist angle through the swing.
Blade: Keep your head down and do not dive at the ball.
[Back to the Grizzly Times]
|
UM soccer finds Alaskan pipeline
by Ian Marks, UM Sports Information |
When you think of soccer hot beds in the United States, California, Texas and the East Coast come to mind. But Alaska?
Head coach Neil Sedgwick |
“Soccer in Alaska is really growing. The influence of people moving to Alaska and a support of soccer in the area has really helped the sport thrive,” says Neil Sedgwick, head coach of the women’s soccer team at the University of Montana. “Alaska fields Olympic Development Teams in many of the age groups while some states, including Montana, Idaho and Wyoming, only field teams in some of the age groups.”
“Soccer is probably the biggest sport in Alaska after hockey,” said Rachael Mayer, a sophomore on the Grizzly soccer roster, who has started all 26 games of her career for the Grizzlies. Prior to joining the UM program, Mayer was a two-time all-state selection at South Anchorage High School. “A lot more Alaskans are beginning to play soccer in college now compared to a few years ago.”
The Alaska Youth Soccer Association, founded in 1983 and incorporated in 1989, currently has over 10,000 players participating with 25 different clubs.
The Grizzlies currently have four players on the roster from Anchorage. Sophomores Sami Cooke, Lydia Cotton and Mayer are all in their second year with the team while freshman Shay Cardwell is in her first. The four knew each other well before coming to Montana through the local soccer scene in Anchorage. Cooke, Cotton and Mayer all played together on the same club team, while Cardwell was a member of a younger team.
“Our club teams traveled all over the US. We would usually play in one tournament over the summer and then go to the regional tournament. We played all over the western US, North Carolina, Florida and even Hawaii. Hawaii was the best trip,” said Sami Cooke, a forward on the Griz squad, who was named the MVP of the state championship match after leading South Anchorage High School to the title as a junior. Cooke has appeared in 17 games for Montana in her two-year career.
It was at one of these tournaments that Sedgwick first caught a glimpse of the talent that was available in Alaska. The tournaments showcase hundreds of teams from all across the United States.
“We first saw them play in some of the larger tournaments in California and Las Vegas. The Alaskians started contacting us, and we responded back regarding the possibility of them becoming potential student-athletes for us,” said Sedgwick. “There was mutual interest from both parties.”
“Montana was a natural fit for me. It is very similar to Alaska, with the mountains and recreational sports opportunities, such as skiing,” said Cotton, who plays forward for the Griz and was a two-time all-state selection at Dimond High School. She has also seen action in 17 games for the Grizzlies. “I also knew a lot of people that are going to school in Montana or have gone to school or lived here. There is a large exchange rate between Alaska and Montana.”
Even though the Griz players are a long way from home it doesn’t stop their parents from seeing them play. Cooke’s father Greg and Mayer’s parents William and Karen will travel to Missoula to watch the team play in the Montana Nike Cup. The Mayers, who have come to a few Griz games in the past, will also stop and see their son, who plays club soccer at Colorado State before visiting relatives in Wyoming. The players also find time to return home for Christmas break and during the summer.
Sophomore forward Sami Cooke |
Anchorage, which contains roughly 25 percent of the state’s 631,000 citizens, is home to a majority of the approximately 600 Griz fans in the state. The group regularly gets together to watch Griz-Cat football games at the Peanut Farm and any other sport that they can get on a satellite feed. The fans show their true love for UM by traveling from hundreds of miles away just to watch the games. A strong contingent also watched the Montana men’s basketball team when it played at Alaska-Anchorage in 2002.
“Whenever we walk around with Grizzly stuff on people always stop and tell us how much of a fan they are of UM,” said Cooke.
Coach Sedgwick shares the same sentiment. “If you need information on the Grizzlies, just talk to Rich Owens at the Tastee Freez. He knows everything about the Grizzlies.”
Owens is an alum of UM who graduated in 1976 with a degree in interpersonal communication and moved to Alaska in June of 1986. His father (1949) and brother (1975) are also UM grads. Currently he is the owner and chief ice cream taster at the Tastee Freez, which has a Montana pennant proudly displayed on the community bulletin board, and is a co-owner of the recently completed indoor water park. He follows the Grizzlies mainly through the internet. Owens, who was honored with the Community Service Award by The University of Montana Alumni Association in 2003, constantly checks the Missoulian website as well as montanagrizzlies.com and the UM alumni website, for the latest news regarding the Griz as well as any possible Alaska-Montana connections.
“We are always proud of anybody from Alaska. It is tough for Alaskans to get exposure and a lot of really good kids go unnoticed,” said Owens.
Owens was approached by fellow Alaskan’s and Griz alums, Steve and Kris Shuck, who are huge soccer fans, that Sedgwick would be visiting Alaska to put on a soccer camp. Owens who is a gracious host to any Griz fan that travels to Alaska, befriended the Griz coach during his stay in Alaska. “If anyone knows a Griz fan that is going to be in the area they tell them to stop by and see me. At the very least they will get a free meal out of me,” said Owens. “You could say that I am one of the biggest Griz fans in Alaska. I don’t know all the stats, but I still love to support the teams.”
Soccer is gaining in popularity throughout the state, not just in the larger cities of Anchorage, Fairbanks and Juneau, but smaller communities as well. Sedgwick has received letters from many players from smaller communities.
Many colleges opt not to recruit Alaska due to the high travel costs. In an effort to gain more exposure, talented athletes in smaller communities will oftentimes move to larger communities such as Anchorage and Fairbanks. Some have even gone one step further and attended high schools in the lower 48 states in the hope of catching the eye of college coaches.
“One of the biggest misconceptions about soccer in Alaska is that we don’t have any good players,” said Mayer.
The United States National Team has noticed this talent as well. There are currently players on both the U-15 and U-17 national teams. Carly Butcher, a midfielder, who plays for South Anchorage High School and is a member of the Alaska Rush, will compete with the U-17 national team in a series of friendly matches taking place in Carson, Calif., the last week of September. Alev Kelter also played with the U-15 national team last year and will likely see action again this season as well.
The biggest obstacle facing soccer in Alaska is the playing fields.
“Most of the fields are in really bad shape in Alaska due to the weather. The fields feature undulating terrain of grass and dirt often littered with sticks and rocks,” said Cotton. “We play all of our high school games on the football field that is field turf.”
Sophomore midfielder Rachael Mayer |
The players also get plenty of chances to practice at home, as each has a full-size soccer goal in their back yard. Mayer’s and Cooke’s fathers each built their goals out of metal piping.
“More than once a moose has gotten caught in the net,” said Mayer, on a problem that the average soccer player in the lower 48 will never be faced with.
Games are even delayed or even cancelled due to moose wondering on the field. The large creatures pose a potential threat to people if they are provoked.
When teams aren’t dodging moose they are oftentimes forced to battle the elements during the high school season which takes place in the spring, starting in early March, before concluding with the state championships at the end of May.
“We play most of the time indoors to start the season,” said Mayer. There are many indoor facilities that feature a turf field roughly one-third the size of a regulation size soccer field.
The players are anxious to begin playing outdoors but still face late-season snow.
“More than once we have had to shovel snow off the field before we could play on it,” said Mayer.
With all of these obstacles many players would become disenfranchised, but the players in Alaska persevere for the love of the game.
“The people of Alaska are honest, hard-working people,” said Sedgwick, who has been conducting soccer camps in Alaska for the past two years. “As long as there are quality players in Alaska we will keep recruiting them.”
Sedgwick is not afraid of the recruiting battle that could ensue for Alaska’s soccer talent in the future if Alaska-Anchorage or Alaska-Fairbanks begins to sponsor women’s soccer as a varsity sport. “We would love to travel to Alaska and showcase the talent of the UM soccer team. If they put on a tournament we would definitely be there.”
[Back to the Grizzly Times] |
| A letter from Athletic Director Jim O'Day |
Montana A.D. Jim O'Day |
The fall sports season at The University of Montana has gotten off to an outstanding start.
Heading into the middle portion of the schedule, the Grizzly football team under the direction of Bobby Hauck has people excited with its high-octane offense and ball-hawking defense as the local griders make a run at the school’s 14th straight post-season playoff appearance. There’s still a long season ahead, but signs point to a promising finish if the stars remain aligned.
Women’s soccer and volleyball are also far ahead of last year’s pace, and appear ready to make a move to advance into the post-season under the guidance of Neil Sedgwick and Jerry Wagner.
Likewise, Tom Raunig’s cross country teams are on an upward swing and only look to get better as the young rosters mature.
In their early fall schedules, golf and tennis have also posted impressive results – and look to be contenders come spring. Men’s tennis is coached by Kris Nord, while Jen Anderson has the women.
That leaves men’s and women’s basketball, which open practice in mid-October. Both return a nucleus of talented players that bode well for this year and into the future.
Men’s coach Wayne Tinkle replaces another UM legend, Larry Krystkowiak, who led the Griz into the second round of last spring’s NCAA tournament. Gone from that team are starters Kevin Criswell and Virgil Mathews. Still, the cupboard is far from bare.
Robin Selvig, meanwhile, also lost only two letterwinners from a Lady Griz team that won 20+ games again last year: Katie Edwards and Jodi McLeod.
Things are good at UM Athletics.
First off, there’s great news about women’s golf coach Joanne Steele, who had heart transplant surgery on Sept. 17. Her progress continues to improve daily, and she serves as an inspiration for our entire staff. The 2006 Big Sky Conference Coach of the Year hopes to be back with her team sometime this spring. In the meantime, they’re under the tutelage of John Powers, and the squad has been performing extremely well.
Also, we expect to be able to offer multi-year contracts to coaches in football and men’s and women’s basketball pending action by the Montana Board of Regents. The long-awaited process was supported and proposed by UM President George Dennison and should provide more stability for our coaches and their programs. This was a real positive move.
Finally, if finances stay on course (and nothing unexpected surprises us), we plan to pay off the final piece of the athletics deficit that we’ve been battling for almost three years. If this is the case, the $1 million debt will be eliminated two years early. That comes from a combination of coaches and staff tightening their belts as well as strong support from our boosters and fans. It will be an entire TEAM effort, and that’s what makes Grizzly Athletics so special!!
Yes, things are great in Grizzlyville. I hope you’ll join us for this special ride.
Jim O'Day - Athletic Director
[Back to the Grizzly Times] |
| UM Athletic Department and GSA announcements |
Jason Crebo (1994-97) is one of seven legacy players to have worn No. 37. |
No. 37 Legacy Jersey Program to benefit student-athletes
The Bookstore at The University of Montana and UM Athletics have once again joined forces to help raise money to purchase lettermen's jackets for all of UM's student-athletes in the 14 sponsored Division I varsity sports ... MORE
Spokane reception slated for UM-EWU game
The GSA Spokane Chapter will be hosting a Grizzly Scholarship
Association reception in Spokane for Friday night Oct. 6 prior to the
Griz / EWU game on the 7th. Festivities will start at 6pm at the Valley
Quality Inn Suites and will include finger food / beverages, and there
will be a raffle and brief auction of some awesome Griz stuff.
Montana basketball coaching clinic scheduled for Oct. 21
The University of Montana will host its annual Grizzly Coaching Clinic Saturday, October 21 at the Adams Center in Missoula. The clinic takes place from 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. with speakers Wayne Tinkle and Robin Selvig joining Keith Kingsbury of the ABA, Eric Hughes of Spokane Community ... MORE
Profits from book "Mad Dogs" go to UM
James Grady, UM Distinguished Alumni and author of the classic "Six Days of the Condor," will donate profits from sales of "Mad Dogs" to UM.
"Mad Dogs" (Forge Books) will be released in hardback on Sept. 19, 2006, and Grady will present a reading and book-signing on campus during UM Homecoming, Oct. 13-14. Books pre-ordered from UM will be available for pickup at Homecoming or shipped the following week.
PRE-ORDER A COPY OF MAD DOGS
2006 Griz Auction set for Nov. 17
The Grizzly Scholarship Association will be hosting the 2006 Griz Auction on the eve of the 106th Griz-Cat football game. The auction will take place on November 17, 2006 at the Hilton Garden Inn. The event will begin at 6:30 p.m. The evening will include a one hour social, silent auction, dinner, and live auction. All proceeds from the auction will go toward scholarships for the student athletes at The University of Montana. For more information or reservations please call 406-243-6481.
Griz Nation wristbands on sale
All proceeds from the Griz Nation wristband will go to the Grizzly Scholarship Association at The University of Montana. Help Support the Griz by wearing the wristband and showing your pride in being the best fans in the country, which is now known as “Griz Nation." Thanks you for your support! Go Griz!
ORDER
ONLINE AT
THE GRIZ SHOP
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